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CHARLESTON, S.C. – A 3-year-old boy died on Saturday after he walked out of a South Carolina home last Wednesday, climbed into his grandmother's car and became trapped, a South Carolina coroner said on Monday.

"Apparently on Wednesday he went outside, him and his little dog, and somehow he got in his grandmother's car," Lancaster County coroner Mike Morris told Reuters. "They couldn't find him for 30 minutes."

The mother, Amber Bender, fell asleep watching television on the sofa with her son about midday and woke up later to find he was not there, according to a police incident report.

After searching the house she checked the car and found the boy, Logan Cox, slumped over in the driving seat with the emergency flash lights on.

Morris said authorities do not know how long the child was in the car but both he, and the dog, were found unresponsive. The mother told police it could have been 30 minutes to an hour, the police report stated.

The boy was airlifted to a hospital in Charlotte about 40 miles away where he died on Saturday, he said. The dog also died, Morris said.

"It was heat-related," he said.

It was not immediately known if charges would be filed in the child's death.